Merry Christmas!

Here are some scenes from Christmas 2008. Merry Christmas everyone!

White Christmas?

We've all been dreaming of a White Christmas, however California is usually just a little too warm for snow in the wintertime. This past Monday we were surprised to find something cold and icy falling from the sky. Unfortunately it was just a little hail storm, oh well. Too bad we don't live in New Orleans anymore, they had a real snow storm last week.

Christmas Spirit

This past week we got into the Christmas Spirit by attending the annual city tree lighting ceremony. Lillian loved dancing to the holiday music and all the lights.

Here is Lillian with her Daddy, in front of the big Christmas tree.

And here she is with Mommy and a Christmas wolf. Poor Lillian was terrified of all the people in Christmas costumes. We didn't even bother to try to sit her on Santa's lap.

Lillian and her Daddy, enjoying all the pretty decorations in City Hall.

Lillian is Silly

Lillian has been exhibiting some extremely silly behavior lately.

First, it was talking on two phones at once (one of the "phones" is actually a calculator but Lillian doesn't know that)

Then it was getting pillows and blankets for Nash so that he could take a nap while wearing one and only one of mommy's black socks.

Then she threw all her books onto the floor laid herself down on the coffee table and declared that she was sleepy (does that look like a sleepy baby?).

Lillian busts a move

Thanksgiving

Lillian's had a great time for Thanksgiving this year. She really loves turkey and cranberries. I think she ate more than anyone else at Thanksgiving dinner. Her Granny Elaine came to visit, and got to see lots of new tricks. Lillian now sings Twinkle Twinkle, the Alphabet Song, and Itsy Bitsy Spider (at least you can recognize that's what she's going for...). She also counts, sometimes getting all the way to 10. As you can see here, she's not really looking like a baby any more. She's moving on to being a full-fledged little girl.

Granny gave Lillian these sunglasses last time we were in Phoenix. Elaine's been hanging on to these since the 80's. As you can see, they're a big hit with future superstars.

Lillian is into everything, and developing a strong independent streak. All day long she's telling us, "self," meaning she wants to do it herself. Here she's digging our junk mail out of the waste paper basket, and turning an envelope into a hat.

We'll end this update with a few videos. Here's everyone sitting on the couch, while Lillian laughs hysterically at Nash.

And here we see a little display of counting skills. Those sick-days watching Sesame Street seem to be good for something after all!

A year of food

This past spring we subscribed to the Two Small Farms CSA hopeful that we could find a use for all the fresh picked organic vegetables delivered to us each week. With the year almost over, we celebrated the end of our CSA season this past week. Even with the warm California climate our farm can only provide us with fresh produce from March through November. We've declared the project a success, we were able to use all (or almost all) of our vegetables each week. Eric and I, being the misers that we are, could not stand to see vegetable go to waste so we had to figure out some creative ways to use some unusual vegetables. Here are some suggestions:

Beets - Beet Rosti with Rosemary
Cabbage - Braised Cabbage with Apples
Swiss Chard - Fettuccine with Swiss Chard, Currants, Walnuts, and Brown Butter
Kale - Pasta with Kale and Sausage
Dill - Dill and Mustard Sauce (for Fish)
Sorrel - Sorrel and Goat Cheese Quiche
Arugula - Arugula and Walnut Pesto
Agretti - Agretti with Bacon and Onions
Tomatillos - Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Leeks - Potato Leek Soup
Scallions - Green Onion Pancakes
Turnips - We never found a good use for the Turnips, maybe next year.
Celery - Eric and I agree that any recipe that calls for celery is just as good without it.

Lillian enjoyed the vegetables as well. She has a particular fondness for the orange and red ones like, carrots, beets, peppers, tomatoes and winter squash. Of course her very favorite CSA vegetable, strawberries, aren't a vegetable at all.

The good little helper

Lillian loves helping out, so when she saw her Great Grandma Nora sweeping off the patio she grabbed her very own baby-sized broom and joined in.

Lillian and Nora make quite the pair. Their both like to keep very busy. Without the reinforcements, Lillian's kept us so busy that we forgot to pull all the pictures off our camera after our trip a few weeks back.

I don't think this patio has ever looked so clean! Now if only we could trust Lillian to wash our dishes, we'd be set.

Lillian's Bubble Bath

Lillian plays in the fountain in Phoenix

Arizona Girl

Last week we took Lillian on a trip to Phoenix to visit with the McGuire clan. Lillian had lots of fun hanging out with her Grammy and Paw Paw. She also got to see her Great Grandma Nora who was out visiting from New York and who she hasn't seen since last fall's visit to New York.

Of course once you have the whole family in one place, family portraits are inevitable.

Lillian is becoming very helpful, here she is trying to help her Grammy empty the dish washer.

We have way too many great pictures to post here, so we've put them in our Phoenix08 webalbum. Thanks Dad for taking so many pictures!

Cowgirl does brunch

Lillian loves cows so much that it was a given she was going to be something cow related for Halloween (we're reminded constantly that cows say, "moo."). So this year she's a cowgirl. Unfortunately she grew out of her boots, so she'll have to make due with the ones on her shirt.

We got invited to a baby Halloween brunch hosted by Lillian's friend baby Shannon from Strollerhikes. All the babies looked great in their costumes, and it was nice to get another opportunity to show them off aside from the big day. Here's Lillian sampling some juice with our hostess.

Funny computers

Lillian loves using the computer. She thinks it's hilarious.

Second Cousins

Today we had a very special visit with Lillian's second cousins Kyra and Kylie. Kristen's cousin Brooke and her husband Karl came for a brief visit after a family trip to the northern coast before heading back to their home in Tuscon. Lillian and Kylie's birthdays are only a few weeks apart, Kyra is a two years older.

As you can see, Lillian warmed up to the visitors immediately and made her self comfortable on Karl's lap so he could read her a book. We had a lovely breakfast and spent some quality time at the park. It's nice for Lillian to see second cousins even if the visit is brief. Hopefully we will see them all again very soon.

Grandparents are the Best!

Last week we had a visit from Lillian's Grammy Elaine and Grampy Tom. Lillian charmed them with all her new words and her never ending desire to run around. In an effort to keep the girl busy we spent most of the weekend out and about. We all went to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose on Saturday. On Sunday we went to Shoreline Park to see the beautiful lake, all the ducks and wonderful sailboat teamed playground.

Nash enjoyed the visit as well, he got lots of attention and got to go out for lots of walks. Lillian even got in on the action by bringing Nash his Frisbee.

When Grammy is in town, Lillian spends lots of time at the playground. Here's a picture that Grampy took of Lillian and her Grammy going down the slide at the park.

Farmer Girl

This past weekend Lillian got a taste of life on the Farm. We made a visit to Hidden Villa, an educational farm in Los Altos Hills. Lillian had loads of fun practicing all her animal sounds. Here she is mooing at the cows. There were a few sheep in there as well for her to baa at.

From cows and sheep, we moved on to the free-range chicken area where she cock-a-doodle-doo'ed with the roosters. Chickens are pretty scary when there's no fence separating you from them. What's a baby to do, but try to run away? Of course that building she's backing into is the chicken coop, so right after this photo she got freaked out by more chickens coming out of the open gate. They had her surrounded!

Hugs from daddy help her forget all about the mean chickens.

Silly Babies

This past Friday we hosted another mom and baby lunch. Much fun was had by all. The babies had fun scattering Lillian's toys all over our house. The moms enjoyed the lunch and each other's company. After lunch was done all the babies headed outside to play. Like a moth to a flame they all headed to the neighbor's stoop to climb the three little steps. Miraculously I was able to get a few pictures that included 4 out of the 5 babies.

Having all those babies around gives Lillian a case of the sillies. Lillian decided it was a good idea to Samuel's belly as a bouncy toy. Thankfully Samuel is a good sport and doesn't seem to mind the bouncing.

Slow Food Baby

This past Saturday we headed up to San Francisco to see the Slow Food Festival at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza. We checked out the Victory Garden and ate some great food. Lillian had lots of fun tooling around the grass outside city hall eating a cheese sandwich and playing on the playground. In the garden we had a run in with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom, easily spotted due to is distinctive hairdo.

Like a record player...

Whee! Lillian discovers the joys of spinning, with the expected results.


Of course once you fall down, what's left to do, but to get up and try it again, and again, and again. Those attempts aren't getting any longer.

Everything is a Hat Part 2

Lillian really loves to wear hats. Indoors that is. As soon as we go out into the sun, off comes the hat. Apparently fashion trumps utility, as she only wears it when she wants to look good.

Of course the only thing more fashionable than a sun-hat indoors, is the bowl she just ate her breakfast from. I call this the breakfast queen look, with the bowl crown and spoon scepter.

And now the queen has a message for all her loyal subjects.

Bag Girl

Lillian loves accessorizing, first it was shoes, then hats now it's hand bags. Lillian loved playing with her Grammy Elaine's purse, here is a cute picture we snapped with her wearing the purse last week.

Everything is a Hat

Lillian seems to think everything is a hat. Her Grammy snapped this picture of her using her cereal bowl as a hat this past week. Lillian even says the word hat now, it's one of her favorite words.

The Doll Stroller

Lillian had a grand old time at the park today playing with her friend Emma's doll stroller. She loved it so much we all went to the toy store this afternoon to buy Lillian one of her own. Here are some videos of her pushing it around the playground today.


Lillian and her friend Jessie with the stroller. As you can see Lillian won't let Jessie have the stroller, she hasn't quite figured out sharing yet.


Lillian and Jessie up on the bench at the playground. As you can see Lillian is becoming quite a climber nothing in the house is safe anymore.

Lillian's new dress

Lillian's Grammy Elaine came out to visit this week, she made her this cute little dress and matching sun hat. Now Lillian is all ready for summer.

Lillian's First Motorcycle Rally

This past Saturday Lillian attended her very first Motorcycle Rally. Our friend Izzy invited us to a Bar-B-Q at his house in Hollister the weekend of the famous (or infamous) Hollister Motorcyle Rally. While none of us are motorcycle enthusiasts, the rally was quite a site to see.

Motorcycles as far as the eye can see, and not a muffler to be found anywhere. The rally is really noisy.

Lillian refuses to be a passive spectator. She wants to be part of the action.

Double, double toil and trouble

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble...

Lillian has certainly got the toil, the trouble and the cauldron parts down. I think we'll have to draw the line at letting fires burn however.

Lillian gets a Fauxhawk

Lillian's Auntie Erin came to visit us this weekend. She found Lillian's hairstyle to be a little dull. So with a little product she was able to sculpt Lillian's hair into this hip Fauxhawk.

Lillian loves her new do. She's all ready for her first rock concert. Too bad Auntie Erin can't visit every weekend.

Babies Who Lunch

This past Friday, we hosted lunch for our play group. For the past several weeks 6 mommies and babies have been getting together for a playgroup lunch on Fridays. It's a great treat for mommies and babies alike. The babies get to play together while the mommies enjoy each other's company and a wonderful home cooked meal.

Here are all the babies starting clockwise, Jessie (riding Nash in pink), Sofia, Leif, Samuel and Emile. Where is Lillian? That's a good question, probably getting into trouble while this picture was being taken.

And here are Lillian and Jessie climbing and rolling around on the futon. Jessie and Lillian have great fun wrestling, climbing and doing other unladylike things. These two are little partners in crime.

Samuel, taking a break from all the action. All this fun sure makes the babies tired.